New U.S. Law Requires Gadget Manufacturers Label Parts From Congo [Manufacturing]

Foxconn is frequently held up as the poster child for tainted gadgets, but there\’s far worse in war-torn Congo, from whence most of the minerals that ultimately make up the innards of our smartphones come.

Steve Jobs has personally weighed within the issue inside the past, and now so too has the U.S. government with a new law.

The law is discreet-\” conflict minerals\” from Congo should be labeled as such&mdah;and is designed to hit rebels where it hurts most (their wallets)

All well and good, yes, but the impact on the Congolese people, lots of whom rely upon the mines for work, is still seen.

Worse still, advocacy groups worry that companies might bypass Congo altogether and find their minerals elsewhere. Presently, Congo represents only 5% of the sector\’s tin, for instance, so whether or not it is a case of the road to you-know-where being paved with good intentions is still seen. [MSNBC, Image: Washington Post]

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